Thursday, September 19, 2013

As I had noted in a previous post, my artwork is a very personal thing for me and I paint and draw primarily because it makes me happy. However, I'm honored and humbled to have discovered over the past couple of weeks that apparently my creations bring joy to others as well since I've sold a few pieces! I put the money to very good use by replenishing some of my supplies and I've been happily painting and drawing all week, mixing things up as the mood strikes me with acrylics, soft pastels and pastel pencils, colored pencils, and even a touch of pen.

I cannot offer enough thanks to all the very wonderful experienced and extremely talented artists out there who so generously offer their expertise in a multitude of ways: posting free tutorial videos, kindly responding to questions about their craft, and generating helpful newsletter articles - their advice, inspiration and knowledge have been a veritable treasure trove of knowledge and I am forever in their debt.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Today was the 6 Hours of Tanglewood mountain bike race. I was originally going to sign up solo since I couldn't find any local ladies interested in partnering up for a duo. However, luckily I found an awesome teammate on the biketriad forum (my teammate's hubby has some amazing photos and video of the race posted there as well). I had never met Laura in person prior to this race, although we had emailed a couple of times over the past year. Turns out I could not have asked for a better female duo partner, and we had a terrific race, taking second place only a lap behind the first place team (who I heard were pros!), and a lap ahead of third and fourth place.

The trails at Tanglewood were a lot of fun - tight and twisty, with some very fast sections, a few log crossings, smatterings of rocks, some offbeat bridges and short steep climbs throughout, with a nice flat finishing stretch.

I had an incredible time, and hopefully Laura and I will be teaming up again soon!

Sunday, September 8, 2013

If I do say so myself, Steve and I make a pretty good team. While I've been busy painting, he's been honing his talents at hand-making wood frames (he has also become quite skilled at cutting mats, I might add). He does some very impressive work - taking raw wood and turning it into gorgeous fully finished handcrafted frames. In my humble opinion, his beautiful handiwork gives a delightfully clean and finished look to my canvases and I'm thrilled with the results.

Below is a close-up look at the acrylic-on-canvas Fairytale Forest Series in their new custom handmade wooden frames that Steve built, stained, varnished and attached all backing and hanging hardware himself. How lucky am I to have such a talented husband who makes my works look so nicely finished?!